The present invention relates to fishing rods and, in particular, to a rod blank suspended within a rod handle and having a ferrule switch mounted to the rod handle and a vibrator mounted to the rod blank to induce vibrating movement to a suspend fishing line and lure.
A common fishing technique is to jig a rod up and down from several inches to several feet in a preferred sequence to cause a suspended lure to correspondingly rise and fall with a fluttering action that initiates an injured prey species. Such movements attract fish and can induce active or feeding fish to strike. A variety of devices have therefore been developed to support and jig or manipulate a fishing rod up and down, for example U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,401,380; 4,251,939; 4,100,695; 4,020,582.
A variety of other devices have been developed to jig or manipulate a fishing line up and down, for example U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,821,948; 4,528,767; 4,420,900; 4,349,978; 4,120,112; 3,981,095; 3,789,534; 3,600,837; 2,908,103; 2,783,576; and 2,746,198.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,700,501 discloses a battery-powered device that simultaneously vibrates the rod blank and a suspended fishing line.
Although active jigging actions can be productive with active, feeding fish, a continuing problem is enticing a neutral or generally inactive fish into striking a presented bait. A neutral fish may merely swim in place and inspect the lure or bait. On such occasions, a fisherman can sometimes manually manipulate the lure with subtle vibrations, and/or with subtle changes to the lure's elevation, to induce a strike.
The present invention was developed to provide a modular assembly that can be adapted to any fishing rod, although finds particular application with relatively short ice fishing rods. Preferably the rod is constructed with a floating rod blank; that is, the rod blank is substantially free to move and vibrate within a support handle. A ferrule switch mounts to a suspended portion of the handle and within which a battery power source is manipulated as a switch contact. A motor and a driven eccentric weight are supported to the rod blank forward of the handle to induce vibration in the rod blank, line and suspended lure.